1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle information update method, as well as an apparatus and system using the same, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for updating vehicle software and a navigation map using a mobile device having near field communication (NFC) functionality.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With the progress of automobile technology, recent vehicles have developed various and increasingly complex functionality. In addition, various kinds of software to realize the various and complex functionality have also been provided. In particular, a software upgrade rate based on the addition of new functions and error correction has increased, which causes user convenience.
Generally, in order to upgrade vehicle software, a vehicle owner visits a service center. Alternatively, the vehicle owner may manually access an Internet-based home page related to the vehicle to check and download software corresponding to the type and manufacture year of the vehicle, and then install the downloaded software. For example, the vehicle owner stores the checked software in a portable storage medium, such as a universal serial bus (USB) memory or the like, connects the portable storage medium to the vehicle, and drives a predetermined application for software update to perform software upgrade. Generally, a version for vehicle software upgrade is provided once a quarter. However, the above manual process can be inconvenient for the vehicle owner.
In addition, map data for navigation is typically updated once a quarter. The entire map data is downloaded from a predetermined map server and stored in the vehicle. In particular, the map data has a large size of 4 gigabytes (GB) to 5 GB. According to types, large-sized data having a size of 10 GB or more exist, as well. For this reason, it may take long time to download map data from the Internet home page.
In recent years, different software systems have been equipped in vehicles, even in the same vehicle type. As a result, drivers often have difficulty in directly checking and finding software versions appropriate for their own vehicles.